Christ on the Cross with Saints

The man in the tall red hat, standing apart at one end of this Crucifixion, is Saint Sebastian. He holds arrows, the sign of his martyrdom, yet he is dressed as a prosperous man of the painter's own day, in a long coat over red hose. In the 15th century Sebastian was the saint people called on against plague, which kept returning to the towns of Central Europe. At the other end stands Catherine, crowned, with her sword and the wheel of her ordeal beside her. Between them the Virgin and John mourn beneath the cross, all set against a gold ground patterned like brocade. The Belvedere dates the panel around 1470 and lists it as attributed to the Master of Grossgmain, and in 2017 it was shown in the museum's exhibition on Rueland Frueauf the Elder and his circle.